Film Review: Never Not Parts 1 & 2

On Monday, September 16, Nike Snowboarding hosted a 24-hour online premiere of their newest shred flick, Never Not. Directors Joe Carlino and Per-Hampus Stalhanske split the film into two parts. Part 1 is your traditional snowboarding movie with backcountry pow scenes and city rails, while Part 2 has a documentary-like focus, bringing clarity to the snowboarding wizards behind the curtain.

Now here is where it gets tricky. Nike only premiered Part I online on Monday. According to Nike’s official website, Part 2 wouldn’t be dropping until October 10. However, after a few minutes of diligent digital sleuthing, I stumbled upon Part 2 hosted for free on iTunes. Score!

After watching Never Not in its entirety, here is what I found. Part 1 was mostly average. It felt like I was watching the same movie I’d seen a thousand times. I felt that way right up until Halldór Helgason’s part. Between handplant-sliding a rainbow rail to backflipping off one building onto another and then hucking a 360° over the last building, Helgason has managed to set himself apart from the pack.

Then I watched Part 2. And I must say that Carlino and Stalhanske did a fantastic job at bringing everything full circle. They expose the inspiration behind location choices and highlight the work and effort that gets poured into every single shot. They show the injuries and failures that preceded the perfectly executed tricks in Part 1, and how some tricks like Helgason’s building-flip-360°-extravaganza have been in the works from upwards of three years.

Being able to see what the riders go through and hear their experiences in Part 2 made me change my mind about Part 1—I appreciate it more. I walked away from Never Not realizing that it’s not just about advancing the industry (going bigger and pushing the envelope), but that it’s also about the rider. It’s about hitting tricks they’ve never done before, proving themselves to the world, and being able to be in nature and ride the mountain. Just as it is.